Polk County election officials have been going through training to get ready for the upcoming elections with the Primary Election on August 14 and the General Election on November 6. “In the last couple of days, we have provided the
administrative election training to all the clerks and administrators of our 82 precincts,” said Polk County Auditor/Treasurer Michelle Cote. “We offered five sessions here at Polk County. As a part of those sessions, they learned about law changes and things they need to do. We covered some of the head judge duties and then they were introduced to some of our new equipment.”
Today, (Friday, June 29) is the first day to vote by mail or in person (by absentee ballot) in the Primary Election. In Minnesota, you can vote 46 days prior to the election through absentee and mail ballot. In Polk County, there are 82 precincts with 55 of them having the ballots mailed to them, that is 13 new precincts this year, or over 5,000 people in the county. The ballots will be mailed out on July 13 and most residents should receive their ballots within two to three days. “The absentee and mail ballot rules run pretty parallel. 46 days out from the election people are able to vote absentee,” said Cote. “In 2016 they changed the law how a person can apply for an absentee ballot, meaning they no longer need a reason. It really became an early voting option and we had some pretty significant numbers in 2016 and we anticipate they will be even higher in 2018. A voter can come in and apply for an absentee ballot and not have to state why and we will provide them with a ballot and they can vote.”
In the past, the Polk County Government Center in Crookston was the only place you could vote absentee. That will change this year with another location in East Grand Forks. “We have designated the city of East Grand Forks as a second location where people who reside in Wards 1 through 5 in East Grand Forks can go to city hall and vote there,” said Cote. “It was a common thing we heard at our counter as people would have to drive here (Crookston) to vote absentee. We listen to our voters and we are rolling it out slowly and we have had similar requests on the eastern edge of the county. For us, it is a staffing issue because we need to make sure we have all of the staff available and whatever we do here, we have to do there. Anybody from any precinct in Polk County can come to Crookston and vote starting June 29.”
Polk County has some new equipment this year after they received a grant of $152,000 from the state. Some of the items that were purchased with the grant money was tabulator machines at a cost of $5,000 apiece. The county is moving to electronic rosters to make the check-in process more private.
99 percent of the Polk County election workers are employed by the county and that helps make things go smooth and election officials have been going through training over the past week. “We have a great crew here,” said Cote. “We utilize internal staff for almost all of our election processes and they have been at it for a lot of years. They do a great job and we put in a lot of hours to ensure the success of the election on multiple levels and I couldn’t do it without them.”
Cote said they will have a booth in the Industrial Building at the Polk County Fair this year where people can register to vote, check their precinct and more. “Our focus this year has been voter outreach,” said Cote. “We have secured a booth at the Polk County Fair, which is July 11-15 and we will have it staffed. They will be able to see the new equipment, we have new tabulators and we will have electronic rosters. In addition, people can see if they are registered to vote and if they’re not we will have tablets there where they can register to vote. They can apply for an absentee ballot while they are there, so it is ensuring that our voter experience is a positive one.”
The General Election will be on November 6 and the voting by mail or absentee ballot will start September 21.
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